Daily Body Skin Care

Daily Body Skin Care

The skin is the body's protective barrier against the environment. We often take our skin for granted. Most people fail torealize that the skin needs daily care just like brushing one's teeth. If the skin is not taken care of properly it canbecome dry, flaky, cracked and inflamed. This can predispose the skin to infection from wart viruses and bacteria.A daily skin care regimen should start as early as infancy and continue throughout one's life.

Daily Body Skin Care

Everyone has a natural oil covering their skin. This oil, named sebum, is made by glands in the skin. When the oil isremoved by frequent use of drying agents, such as soap, the skin becomes dry which can lead to cracking and flaking.Once cracking occurs the skin is susceptible to inflammation and itching. Everyday factors that may cause drying of theskin include harsh soaps, long hot baths or showers, and frequent bathing or showering. Most people overdo skin cleaning.

Daily Body Skin Care

Daily Skin Care (15-20 minutes each day):

1. Each day when you take your bath or shower, try to use luke warm water. Hot water dries out the skin.Try to limit your time to fifteen minutes or less in the bath or shower. Bathing should be done no more than once a day.If you bathe too frequently you will remove the natural oils from the skin causing dryness.

2. Avoid using harsh soaps which dry the skin. Recommended soaps are Dove and Basis. Deodorant soaps are often veryharsh and drying. Even better than soap are soapless skin cleansers such as Cetaphil Lotion and Aquanil.

3. Limit the use of soap to areas that develop an odor such as the armpits, genital area, and feet.

4. When toweling dry, do not rub the skin. Blot or pat dry so there is still some moisture left on the skin.

5. Next apply a moisturizer to the skin. One that we recommend is Xtend-Life Age-Defense Day Cream. Concentrate on areasof your skin that become dry. Vaseline is good for severely dry skin and Lubriderm for normal skin. If you have oily skinyou can skip this step.

6. All areas that are exposed to the sun, such as the face, ears, hands, and back of the neck should have a moisturizercontaining sun block or a sun screen of SPF 15 or greater applied daily.